I finally have a pond! I have dreamed and read about them for years. I took your advice here at DG and we made it as big as we could. But, now at 12,000 galloons it would be nice to be able to buy some chemicals like pH salts down at a volume price. One bottle doesn’t seem to go very far.
Does anyone have any advice on where to look?
Good Internet shopping site
To lower Ph go to Lowe's or Home depot and buy a gallon of muriatic acid. Add one tablespoon for 1000 gallons a day. Will take a while to start seeing a drop. Mine was over 9 on PH and it took a whole gallon, finally a month later it made it into the 7's. Do not rush it as it will stress everything.
Good hint. I'll try it.
My dh had a good question. Would this muriatic acid harm my plants or fish?
Here is a good site that covers a lot. http://www.perigee.net/~jrjohns/perfectwater.html
It has not hurt any of my plants or fish.
Nice resource, thanks. We are new at this and need all the help we can get.
http://www.mnwgs.org/articles/EmptykH.htm
Try the link above, it gives some info. I personally, dont like to mess with PH much. I've been told it is not so very important what PH is as long as it stays stable.
charlotte
My pH strips list "high." So, it is at least 8.4 with the test strips I have. I also hate to mess with things too much. But, also do not want to loose fish or plants. Even with lots of rain the pH has stayed "high." So, my pH is stable at the high spot. If I do need to use something, I have to have a fairly large volume of it. So, purchasing a larger bulk type container I though might be more cost effective. But, haven't figured out where to buy pond supplies in a larger bulk type containers.
My ph has been at 8.4 for 6 months. That is NOT super high. I was told that if I tried to "manage" it and caused the ph to bounce up and down that is what would kill the fish. Not the stable slightly high ph.
Mine was even 9.0 for a while with no bad effects.
Check your alkalinity or TA, it is indirectly more important than ph. (Because it helps ph to remain stable and not drift throughout the day and night ) I have read that sometimes when folks try to lower/or raise ph it creates a bounce of ph levels. You are putting in a chemical to lower and whatever is in the pond is trying to raise it back. This is VERY dangerous to your fish.
Do more investigation on your own. Ponddoc.com (I dont agree with everything he says) but I think he has some good basic info on this.
I was in the same spot as you last fall. I left the ph alone and worked on balancing my KH. Now the ph has settled down to around 8 and I've lost no fish.
good luck
charlotte
I am also new to ponds but at a a PH of 9.0 and above I lost my fish and could not even grow water hyacinths. At 7.2 to 7.8 now and every thing grows and lives.
Check your sourse water, I did not and that was the problem. What ever you do, do it slow if you have already added fish and plants. Get someone else to test the water also to double check. Search the web and get more information. Best of luck.
http://koivet.com/html/articles/articles_print.php?article_id=60
This message was edited Jul 17, 2004 8:42 PM
Appreciate all your advice. I only have one source of water at our house, it is our well. The KH has run between 180-300, the only two choices on my test strip. I will try some other method to test my water and see what they get.
When I read about water conditioning adding salt to the water comes up frequently. Do you do that to your ponds?
Salt in the right amounts can be good for the fish. It can ease ease breathing, reduce stress, help to build a healthy slime coat on the fish. Be aware that you only add salt once-it will not evaporate out of the water. Also, salt can actually allow the water to become colder before freezing, so I would not recommend it if your fish will stay out for the winter. I used to regularly salt my fancy goldfish tanks and the fish did great. I haven't bothered now that I have koi only because the koi seem tougher. Those fancies used to die if you looked at them sideways!
I dont mess with my ph. It stays around 8.5 to 9.0 depending on the time of day. My plants and my fish thrive just fine there. When my pond was new a couple of years ago, I spent a lot of time and effort trying to control the ph. As long as everything else is okay, a higher ph is not bad. I think it is a bunch of hype to sell you more products. I run three different kinds of filters, mechanical/biological, veggie, and charcoal. I let nature handle the rest.
I'm sure salt can be your friend. I havent used any because I have plants and some are sensitive to it.
charlotte